The Staircase

 

I'm on the final push now to get this property finished so to this end I eventually  managed to get the Grand Staircase completed.   I know I've mentioned this before but I didn't think the original staircase matched the height of the property proportionally so decided to enlarge it.

As this is the first time I've done anything like this, I went with foamboard as it's easy to deal with and just replicated what was there already and followed the existing lines.   The tricky bit was working out the height as it went up the second staircase to the front door.

The joins were trimmed with wood trim and all topped off with a handrail, both were cut and scored to fit, with plenty of masking tape in place until the glue dried.   I was banking on many layers of paint to fill any gaps.

Here is the finished article also showing the self adhesive cork base (which has turned out to be an excellent find).

 

 All grand houses need a peacock!

 

I was going to get all clever and create plinths and fill urns with handcrafted foliage but decided against that (pretty quickly, I may add) and instead replicated the twisted topiary that is already on the balcony.

 

 

 

I've just got some curtains to replace in the basement and rehang a set in the Study, replace the front of the roof and that's it - job done so in the meantime, while I'm busy with all that, here's a wee peek through the front door.

 



 

Oh dear!

 

I thought, in my wisdom, that it would be good to do something by way of decoration on the inside of the flip top roof so it was duly removed and laid, face down, on the table.   It was then left for quite some time as there was RL gardening and RL decorating to be done.

I couldn't decide whether I really wanted to decorate this space in relation to the rooms it covered but in the end it was painted off-white but little window treatments will be put in place.

The hobby room has obviously been really warm recently because when I turned the roof over to work on the oval window it looked like this -

Oh dear.     I bought these tiles on ebay and at the time I was so pleased with the fact that they were self-adhesive and they've stood the test of time pretty well - except, that is, when the house was in the conservatory and some of them slipped down because of the heat.

 

Obviously some roof repairs were required.   Forget  self-adhesive - they've now been glued down and are going nowhere.

 

All better now!

 

 

It turned out to be a pretty good delaying tactic as I wasn't quite sure what to do with the oval window.   I still don't!

Now for a wee change of subject - After reading Simon’s posts featuring a few of his favourite and inspiring books I thought I’d let you know about a little book I purchased recently – “Building an English Country Estate in Miniature”.

 

 

By way of background, this book features the creation of a miniature estate and grand house set in 1900 that had been displayed at Leonardslee Gardens, Sussex.   Sadly the exhibition – Behind the Dolls House - is no longer available to the public but I had seen pictures of the displays prior to the closure and was inspired by what I had seen.

 

 

The display was put together by the author of the book Helen Holland.   It details her inspiration and the process followed in creating a marvellous exhibition.

 

 

The attention to detail is marvellous and research meticulous.   It was also by some fluke that after asking Mrs Holland for her permission to share this book that I discovered that it is also being featured in an article in the September issue of Dolls House World.

I am not related to Helen Holland nor do I have any vested interest in her publication, I just wanted to share this interesting little book.

 

*With thanks to Helen Holland for her kind permission to use her photographs.